A Mayo based farmer (67) resided in a rural part of the County. He sued his local hospital for negligence after attending with headaches. He claims they failed to correctly diagnose him and as a result he now suffers from long term neurological problems. Among the symptoms pleaded was the inability to walk, work on his farm, read and drive. A large part of the claim was for a carer to accompany him whenever he went out. Also he claims his son has to work his farm and was claiming a large sum for labour costs.
Surveillance was undertaken and resulted in Ryan Ireland firstly establishing that the son runs his own ‘Plant Machinery’ company, where he can usually be found and latterly observing the claimant as he drove himself unaccompanied some 8Km to a remote spot in the countryside.
The claimant then carried a 25kg bag of feed over his shoulder and walked unaided over rough boggy terrain in windy conditions to feed some cattle.
Later on that same day he was observed as he drove the same route, this time in a tractor, still alone and with a large bale of hay on the tractor covered in black plastic. Video footage was obtained of him as he landed the bale, cut off the plastic and then amazingly lifting a metal hay feeding ring over the 4’ high bale. This by anyone standards takes some physical strength.